S-Video to RCA converter experiment (1 Viewer)

[Nicole P]

Firstly, thanks to those who answered my previous post in which I asked whether an S-Video to RCA cable could reduce dot crawl.
As a result of your responses, I decided to conduct an experiment with a Tandy(Radio Shack) S-Video to RCA conversion connector.
Since I am in Australia, broadcasts and most of my movie collection are in PAL. It is only when I switch to NTSC for the odd Region 1 disc that dot crawl becomes obvious. This is also accentuated by "rainbow swirls" (pardon my ignorance of the technical term) on detailed contrasting images, i.e rolling credits, silhouetted trees, foliage and grass, spectacle frames, etc.
So, I hooked up my DVD player to my TV via a standard composite cable, a standard S-Video cable and the connector mentioned above. The results are as follows:
1. Yes, the dot crawl is still there.
2. The "rainbow swirls" are gone so the dot crawl is not so pronounced.
3. The image is a little softer.
The softness is probably because of the multiple points of connection causing degeneration in the signal, but overall, I am much happier with the NTSC image. For PAL, I go back to straight composite.
Thanks again for your help, and thanks for letting me share the results with you.
Cheers,
Nicole P

 

[Nicole P]

Just a quick postscript.
Would an all in one cable deliver a sharper image?
Or would that depend on the the quality of its in-built converter?

 

[donovan_chin]

I doubt that any other converter would be any better. This is about the best you can hope when you convert a dual wire signal to single.
You'll need a TV that will accept s-video signals to actually get better video from this point.

 

[Bob McElfresh]

Well, I'm glad you are happy with the converter.
With a composite signal, "dot crawl" is found on sharp, straight lines where different colors intersect as the TV comb filter cannot decide which color to display on intersecting areas. First it does it one way, then another on the next pass. This back-and-forth causes the little dots to appear to crawl.
This is very noticible on text/menu's or straight lines of contrasting colors (like on Toy Story, Austin Powers, etc).
The softer-focus picture will actually blur the lines. With the bluring, you reduce the dot-crawl. But it is a compromise.